Decades ago, the Weapon X program produced the deadliest mutant killers on the planet. Now, with more research, more funding and more Adamantium at its disposal, the Weapon X program is creating new killers for old targets: Old Man Logan. Sabretooth. Lady Deathstrike. Weapon X isn’t just experimenting on mutants anymore…it’s eradicating them. All of them.

The Weapon X program is back, but what their goal is remains a mystery. So far, we just know that the original members of the classic Weapon X program are being hunted for their genetic material. Writer Greg Pak returns this classic part of Wolverine’s history to the forefront in a series that feels from the start that it’s a maxi series in concept and execution.

The first issue is the set up picking up after the events of X-Men Prime and after a fight Wolverine is forced to find someone to ally with to take on this new threat which he can’t detect and has him paranoid and on the the run.

While this first issue isn’t bad when it comes to the writing and story, it’s also not particularly exciting to the point I feel like I have to find out what happens next. There’s an energy and charge that feels like it’s missing and some choices in the flow don’t exactly make sense.

Logan heads to a library to use a computer as opposed to using a cell phone to do some searching, or whatever communicator he has to get ahold of the X-Men (he has to have one, right?). The scene just feels like an odd transition from fighting a battle to his next step of finding Creed. Pak also doesn’t quite feel like he has Logan’s speech patterns down. In one panel he calls Creed “man” when you’d traditionally expect a “bub” there. It’s an odd choice that actually took me out of the character. It just didn’t feel like Wolverine/Logan.

Things aren’t helped by Greg Land whose work is mixed in this issue. There’s some solid action and the design of the killer weapons after Logan and Creed look great, but Land has an issue with people’s faces where individuals look the same over and over. The woman hiker in this issue looks like every woman Land has drawn in the past and looks like the woman in the library. A librarian looks too much like Logan, just with different hair. His take on Logan and Creed too feel like they’re missing something, especially compared to the art on Old Man Logan or even the recent X-Men: Gold. At times Logan looks like a stereotypical kung-fu master just with hair, and at other points he looks young. There’s an inconsistancy.

Something didn’t quite click for me reading this first issue. There’s too much that feels familiar, a new undetectable killer robot, dialogue that didn’t seem in character (man vs. bub), and art that at times emphasizes Land’s weaknesses. I’ll stick around until the eventual reveal of who is behind this new Weapon X, but so far it hasn’t hooked me like I expected.

Story: Greg Pak Art: Greg Land
Story: 6.0 Art: 6.0 Overall: 6.0 Recommendation: Pass

Marvel provided Graphic Policy with a FREE copy for review